notes from nonmembers

Question

Do you get email notes from people wanting to add connections, information from nonmembers, usually without sources. How do you deal with these?

Answer 1

I would just add that I love getting such notes.  I have made contact with at least eight or ten new cousins I didn't know I had by that method -- they were searching the web and found me on WikiTree.  I also ask them for sources, but if they give me info that seems credible, I also sometimes ask if I may use the person's name and attribute the input to him/her on the site.  I have nearly always gotten a yes answer on that.

Answer 2

Suggest that they join Wikitree so that they can add appropriately sourced information themselves. You might also offer to add the information they have given to you if they can point you to reliable sources.

Answer 3

I don't get many but if it is my family, I might incorporate items with sources if the info checks out. I'll thank them and suggest that they join WT  I just ignore anything without sources.

Answer 4

I don't think that a lack of sources in a first contact letter is that discouraging. I always respond and ask for sources, provide mine and try to compare. Sometimes it results in valuable information, sometimes the correspondence ends cold after sources are provided. My thinking is in those cases that there is not much lost. On the other hand I do welcome research hints from other responses, and maybe somebody does get interested enough to join.

Answer 5

I always send them an invitation to join WikiTree.  I also ask them if there are any sources that can be added.  I have made contact with several cousins that are looking for info and also want to add to the tree.

Answer 6

I do get this a lot, I send them this note:

Thanks for the information.   At Wikitree, however we cite sources for any data we add.   Can you provide me with your source of information?   Here is the format that I need for the source of information.  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Sources

I either hear back with some wonderful source that I never knew existed, or they point me to a Geni/Ancestry unsourced tree, or more often, I never hear back.

Like others have said, and I invite them to join Wikitree.

Answer 7

Regularly, I thank them for the data and usually invite them to join us, and if they have given me a credible lead I will chase it down and add it to the relevant profiles.  

A lot of them are actually not in Wikitree due to it being mainly in English, I know I haven't been doing anything on the French portal project lately, but it is something that needs to happen.  Unfortunately, from what Chris said previously, we can't get a fully multilingual program as exists elsewhere due to various considerations, financial being one of them.